Tag: san francisco

California law school sued by namesake’s descendants over name change

Posted on by Judith E. Ashton

A group of alumni from the University of California Hastings College of the Law and descendants of its namesake, Serranus Hastings, filed a lawsuit against the state and the school Tuesday in response to Gov. Gavin Newsom signing a bill that authorized changing the school’s name.

Hastings, a California Supreme Court Justice, founded the school in 1878, but some historians allege he was complicit in the killings of Native Americans.

UC Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, Calif.

UC Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, Calif.
(Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)

On Sept. 30, Newsom, a Democrat, signed AB 1936, which was sponsored by Assemblymember James C. Ramos. The bill redesignates the University of California’s Hastings of the Law as the College of the Law, San Francisco.

The law also outlined several “restorative justice initiatives” for Round Valley Indian Tribes and Yuki people whose ancestors – according to Newsom’s office – “suffered mass killings and other atrocities funded and supported by college founder Serranus Hastings in the mid-19th century.”

AFTER 40 YEARS OF ENROLLING MEN, MISSISSIPPI UNIVERSITY FOR WOMEN CONSIDERS NAME CHANGE

Tuesday’s lawsuit was brought by the Dhillon Law Group and Michael Yamamoto LLP, in conjunction with the Center for American Liberty on behalf of Hastings’ descendants and the UC Hastings Conservation Committee.

The lawsuit disputes AB 1936’s portrayal of Hastings, saying there is no direct evidence of him committing atrocities against Native Americans.

“Hastings, a lifelong Democrat, was a giant in California history, our first California Chief Justice, and like many founding figures, is the latest victim of activists rewriting history to fit a contemporary agenda, with scant factual basis, no due process, and the ends justifying the means,” said Harmeet K. Dhillon, CEO of the Center for American Liberty, in a statement.

UC Hastings College of the Law banners are seen in San Francisco, California, United States on October 27, 2021.

UC Hastings College of the Law

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Jury acquits New Orleans’ progressive district attorney of tax fraud charges | US news

Posted on by Judith E. Ashton

New Orleans’s district attorney, Jason Williams, has been acquitted of all charges in a controversial tax fraud trial, clearing a longstanding cloud over his political future and allowing the progressive prosecutor to remain in office in a city that has long been one of America’s leading incarcerators .

Williams, along with his private practice law partner Nicole Burdett, faced a 10-count federal indictment accusing the pair of conspiring to evade taxes over a five-year period by allegedly inflating business expenses and failing to file appropriate documentation for cash payments received by the law firm.

Thursday’s acquittal by the jury in Williams’s case marks a significant victory for the nationwide movement for reformist prosecutors in the US, spurred in the wake of a resurgent Black Lives Matter movement, which had been dealt a blow after the recall last month of a progressive prosecutor in San Francisco.

The federal indictment was unveiled when Williams, 49, sat on New Orleans’s city council and had publicly acknowledged he was considering a run for the top prosecutor’s job there, leading to claims that he had targeted over his political beliefs.

Williams, who maintained a successful criminal defense practice in addition to his council duties, and won an unexpected landslide victory in 2020 to become district attorney despite being under indictment, accused his conservative DA predecessor and longtime political foe Leon Cannizzaro of working behind the scenes to spur on the federal charges.

Besides almost certainly having to serve a prison sentence, Williams would’ve been forced out of office if he had been convicted by the verdict handed down Thursday.

Man wearing a suit reading a stack of stapled papers.
Williams in his office. Photograph: Annie Flanagan/The Guardian

“The idea that talking about race the way I talked about it, talking about being smart on crime and criminal justice reform the way I talked about it,

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Cop faces charges of theft, fraud and forgery: CA officials

Posted on by Judith E. Ashton

A veteran SFPD <a href=police officer was arrested and is facing charges in a fraud scheme that was in tens of thousands in payouts, officials said.” title=”A veteran SFPD police officer was arrested and is facing charges in a fraud scheme that was in tens of thousands in payouts, officials said.” loading=”lazy”/

A veteran SFPD police officer was arrested and is facing charges in a fraud scheme that was in tens of thousands in payouts, officials said.


Jeff Chiu

AP

A veteran police officer was arrested in a fraud scheme that in tens of thousands in payouts, officials said.

Adam Eatia, a 15-year veteran of the San Francisco Police Departmentwas booked , June 24 on various charges including grand theft by false pretenses, insurance fraud and identity theft, SFPD announced Monday, June 27.

Information for Eatia’s lawyer was not immediately available, the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office told McClatchy News.

Eatia began his scheme after he and a fellow police officer bought a 2018 Ford Mustang in spring 2018, according to a release from the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office. The fellow officer insured the car with Mercury Insurance under his own name. Eatia’s name did not appear on the policy.

In July 2018, Eatia was in a car accident, according to the release. He did not tell the insurance company he was the primary driver and instead claimed he only occasionally drove the car.

Mercury ultimately canceled the policy because Eatia was not authorized to drive the car. But they “still paid over $6,000 in claims for the accident,” which included the cost of a rental car for Eatia, the release said.

Eatia then insured the car through Allstate Insurance Company in March 2019, the release said. Eatia used his fellow officer’s name on the policy without his consent.

“Officer Eatia is

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